BRITAIN handed almost 200,000 passports to foreigners in just one year, ­figures out yesterday reveal.

The already overcrowded UK became home to almost one in four of all new European citizens in 2012.

The startling statistic showed Britain is the most relaxed EU country for issuing passports to foreigners.

It eclipses second place Germany which naturalised just 115,000 migrants in 2012 and doubled the 96,000 who became French.

This report shows the unsustainable levels of ­immigration

Steven Woolfe, Ukip

Indians, Pakistanis and Nigerians made up the bulk of immigrants to Britain.

The figures from Eurostat, the European Commission’s statistical wing, underline the image of Britain as the world’s most popular destination for legal and illegal migrants.

Campaigners fear it will add even more strain to ­public services.

Alp Mehmet, of Migration Watch, said: “We remain the number one target for migrants from outside the EU. It is absolutely essential we continue to bear down on non-EU migrants while restricting the flow from other EU countries.”

“While mass immigration is running at such a high level and with Britain being part of the EU’s policy of free movement of people, it is impossible for the UK to make any major infrastructure plans for the future.”

Related articles

Mr Woolfe said his party would cap immigration to the UK at 50,000 a year and limit state benefits and healthcare to those who have been here at least five years.

Carlos Vargas-Silva, of the Migration Observatory at Oxford University, said: “In the UK you have migration from the Commonwealth countries and they come to join established networks and families.”

The Eurostat figures showed that 818,000 people became EU citizens in 2012. Some 92,000 were already Europeans changing their nationality.

The 193,900 passports handed out by Britain accounted for 24 per cent of all EU citizenships and included 10,500 that went to existing Europeans.

It is 10 per cent up on a year earlier and 60 per cent more than the 120,000 ­citizens created in 2002.

The 2012 figure is equal to three migrants becoming British for every 1,000 inhabitants. Germany, about 50 per cent larger than the UK, handed out 1.4 passports for every 1,000 residents. France created just 1.5 new citizens for every 1,000 existing ones despite being nearly three times the size of Britain. Tiny Luxembourg was top at 8.7.

Across the EU, Moroccans were the biggest single group moving to the continent ­followed by Turks, Indians, Ecuadorians and Iraqis.

Malta and Cyprus were the most popular destination for Britons.

More than 25,000 Romanians changed nationality, mainly in Hungary, Italy and Slovakia.

The new Britons were mainly Indians, nearly 15 per cent of the foreign contingent, followed by Pakistanis at just under 10 per cent, Nigerians at 5 per cent and Filipinos at 4 per cent.